The 1%+ers had many unforeseen problems that ate into my returns and my sanity over the 10yrs I held them.

What ate up all my profits was maintenance and repairs?

Namely I could have looked at the precise wording of Ben’s email and worked to ensure expectations were clear for both parties prior to starting at E 16th.

(I was bidding against an investor and I ate an extra 2,500 on deal of Amerisave's incompetence.

So was this likely funded with cash and they had the reserves to let the property be vacant for 12 months and ate that as part of their costs?

If you ever asked a maggot that ate off the garbage truck what make him puke, the answer is what came through my car windows.

Turned out it was ate up with termites, black mold and the foundation was almost non existent. my realtor thought it was so bad that she called the other realtor that listed it immediately and said it needed to be demolished.

If your brother is a Te, great!

Anything short of that, hire an attorney (someone that has handled a dozen or so of these cases) and follow their advise to a tee. 

Phoenix for example you'll see no cash flow to maybe a few hundred dollars after you take out expenses, but people are buying left and right.you have cash flow and IRR .. you can have cash flow on some properties in non appreciating markets that will be negative IRR when you go to sell.. they went down in value or cap ex ate you up etc.you can have negative cash flow and stunning IRR when the markets appreciate.. there is more to investing than simply asking does it make me 100 a month. or 200.00 a month..